Fewer and fewer receive unemployment benefits

NAV Social security fraud, NAV Rule labour marketNAV.Photo: Norway Today Media

138,500 people received Work Assessment Allowances (AAP), at the end of the first quarter of 2018. This is a decrease from the 2,100 in the last quarter of 2017.

 

According to Nav, 4.1 per cent of the population aged between 18 to 66 are recipients of unemployment benefits. In the last year, the number of recipients has declined by 8,300.

“The number of people on unemployment benefits is steadily decreasing. The decline is due to the fact that more people stop receiving benefits, while the number of those signing on to them is decreasing. Over time, more than four out of ten go to work,” says Sigrun Vågeng, Labour and Welfare Director.

Over 70 per cent of those who receive unemployment benefit funds have mental, muscular or skeletal disorders. A third of those with mental disorders have a depressive disorder, while fibromyalgia and back pain are the two most common diagnoses in the field of muscular and skeletal disorders.

For the those under 30, the proportion of mental disorders is 70 percent. The proportion of mental disorders decreases with age, though is the opposite for the proportion of muscular and skeletal disorders.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today